Very interesting Madden article

And now for something lighter- ESPN has a very cool article on the history of Madden football.  It seems like this happens every year about now (the game comes out on Tuesday), but this is probably the most interesting one I've seen.

A few interesting tidbits:

• Trip Hawkins (the man basically behind Madden Football) originally wanted to feature Joe Montana, but he was unavailable.
• The first Genesis version (which was a big hit) was done by a different couple developers, who decided to take the game in a different direction.
• John Madden turned down the opportunity to buy stock in EA at the price of $7.50 in 1989.  The price right now is only $17, but I'm sure it has doubled and redoubled since then.
• And the most interesting tidbit- Electronic Arts actually developed the Joe Montana football title for the Genesis, that was branded Sega.  I have no idea why Sega would pay them to do it- of course they neutered their own game.

Also, not sure how much longer this will last, but if you're interested in picking the game up, Amazon has a $20 credit if you preorder.  Not sure how much longer you can preorder- but $20 back is pretty good.